The Great Lakes Recovery Center hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house at the new behavioral health campus, the John Kivela Center, in Negaunee on Thursday.

The facility’s name is in memory of former state Rep. John Kivela who passed away in 2017.

“This campus model will allow clients to benefit from increased integrated care opportunities as services will be accessed in one location,” GLRC said on its website.

The center will be the new home for the GLRC’s women’s residential treatment program, including social detox, a recovery house allowing women to continue their life of sobriety after residential treatment and more, according to the GLRC’s website.

State and community officials join Great Lakes Recovery Center staff and family and friends of the late John Kivela outside of the John Kivela Center on Thursday in Negaunee. Renovations were recently completed at the new behavioral health campus. (Journal photo by Dreyma Beronja)

The program is also the second women’s program in the state where women can bring their children.

In addition to the residential programs, the center will also house the Negaunee Integrated Care Clinic, providing outpatient mental and physical health services, Child & Adolescent Specialty Services, including psychiatric care, mental health and substance use disorder outpatient counseling, according to GLRC.

Sandy Kivela, widow to John Kivela, said the center will help “so many families and change so many lives.”

“We live in this motto, always fight the good fight,” she said. “The opening of this center is a true reflection of those words, and all the work that everyone has done to make this happen, and the hard work that will be done here by the people seeking treatment.”

James Haveman, president of the Haveman Group, said that he hopes those who come to the center with addictions find it a “positive path moving forward.”

“A path that leads to sobriety and how to cope with the demons of addiction,” Haveman said. “The loss and pain of the unexpected death of John is going to stay with many in this room for a long, long time. However, we are now assured that this place, which will have a calming spirit, will prevail for all those who enter and offer the spark that we all need and see to keep us moving forward.”

For more information on the John Kivela Center and services through GLRC, visit greatlakesrecovery.org.